GAUVIN: When we say “Task Force,” are we talking about real people? Yes.

Written by Paul Gauvin

February 14, 2013

“Can the circle, be unbroken, bye and bye Lord, bye and bye?”

(Written by A.P. Carter and sung by The Carter Family)

The Carters weren’t singing about the circle at the so-called Airport Rotary gridlock in Hyannis, but the family might as well have been. It has taken a full-time Cape Cod Commission employee and a task force of dozens of people 10 years for a consensus on what to do about it.

Reprising Johnny Carson’s “How hot is it?” routine, we might ask: “Just how many task force people did it take to reach a consensus?” Well, more than it takes to change a light bulb. Here goes:

State Sen. Dan Wolf and his aide, Sue Rohrbach; state Sen. Therese Murray, Plymouth and Barnstable District; State Rep. Brian Mannal, 2nd Barnstable District and U.S. Rep. William Keating, 10th Congressional District.

Also: Barnstable town councilors Ann Canedy of Precinct 1; Debra Dagwan, the council president, of Precinct 8; and James Tinsley, Precinct 9. Not enough?

Add representatives of various town boards: chatty Al Baker for the Department of Public Works, the ubiquitous Deb Krau of the Hyannis Water Board and fiery Felicia Penn of the Planning Board.

Still not enough?

OK. Mix in some folks from various transportation agencies: Tom Cahir, director and Julie Quintero-Schulz of the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority; Bud Breault, manager of the Barnstable Municipal Airport; Wayne Lamson, general manager of the Steamship Authority; John Pearson, general manager of MassCoastal Railroad; Rob Miceli of MassBike and Chris Anzuoni, general manager of Plymouth & Brockton Street Railway Co.

Whew! What? There’s more? From the state Department of Transportation, Pam Haznar of District 5; Calli Cenizal, liaison with the Cape Cod Metropolitan Planning Organization and Tim Kochan, also of District 5.

Goodness! We mustn’t forget the needs of the Hyannis Fire Department: Deputy Chief Dean Melanson is on the task force to make certain there is room for fire trucks. Oh, yeah. What about the town next door that contributes so heavily to the circle by the airport: George Allaire, director of Yarmouth’s DPW, is on board also. And as we say in the movies, “The End”

Taxpayers now know that a transportation task force – this one could be called a Rotary Club - is comprised of real people with some real smarts about trafickky things, construction costs, concept development, car counts, pedestrian, bicycle and business concerns, available space and technology, getting to fires and negotiating the iffy mine field of funding, particularly when that funding in today’s dollars hovers in the vicinity of $50 million or more. On the other hand, that figure is a lot less than what it took to elect a president and a senator from this district, eh?

Well, this task force burned the midnight oil studying concepts from A to H and decided on Jan. 23 to agree on an underpass and road widening concept as the answer to those god-awful gridlocks at the Route 28-Route 132 intersection that we call the Airport Rotary.

Defining the problem is simple. Solving it is what’s hard. Even more difficult is squeezing the various funding sources to pay for it, particularly in the current climate of decreased state revenues and Gov. Patrick’s call for more than a billion in new taxes.

I’m trying to imagine what an artist’s conception of the Route 28 underpass and widening would look like. It would be helpful, that is if some task force agency has one, to provide the press with a drawing. Who knows, somebody out there might have an even better idea.

Meanwhile, will the circle be unbroken? Probably yes, for quite a long time. Grin and bear it.